Human Factors & Situational Awareness Flashcards

What does the IMSAFE personal checklist help a drone pilot assess before flight?

Answer: The pilot's personal fitness to fly: Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion

IMSAFE is a self-assessment tool covering Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion to determine if a pilot is personally fit to operate.

Effective workload management during drone operations involves:

Answer: Prioritising tasks, anticipating demands, and delegating responsibilities where possible

Good workload management involves prioritising critical tasks, planning ahead to anticipate workload peaks, and delegating non-critical tasks appropriately.

What is an 'error chain' in the context of drone and aviation safety?

Answer: A linked series of small errors, each building on the last, that culminates in an accident

An error chain is a sequence of individually manageable mistakes that combine to create the conditions for an accident — breaking any single link can prevent it.

Which of the following is a common contributor to loss of situational awareness during a drone flight?

Answer: Dividing attention between monitoring the drone, the surroundings, and a distracting conversation

Divided attention — particularly from non-essential conversations or distractions — reduces the cognitive resources available for monitoring the drone and its environment.

'Automation bias' in drone operations means:

Answer: Over-relying on automated systems to the point of ignoring contradictory information or failing to monitor effectively

Automation bias occurs when pilots place excessive trust in automated systems, potentially overlooking important warnings or failing to intervene when the system malfunctions.

When a drone pilot receives conflicting instructions from two team members simultaneously, the safest response is:

Answer: Pause the operation, clarify the situation with the team, and agree on a single course of action before proceeding

Conflicting instructions create dangerous ambiguity; pausing to clarify and agree on a unified course of action is the safest and most professional response.

In the SHELL model of human factors, which component represents the pilot themselves at the centre of the system?

Answer: Liveware (central)

In the SHELL model (Software, Hardware, Environment, Liveware), the central 'Liveware' represents the human operator — the pilot — around whom all other system components interact.